I wonder what percentage of people on this forum have a degree in physical science or have professional training in the field. I can scan some user names and some of them are science based. I just scanned down the page and saw a user named "Bucky Ball". I assume they've had some chemistry classes. Myself, I have a B.S. in geology and am currently working on an M.S. in Environmental Science. I'm just curious of whether being trained in science makes one more likely to lack a belief in a deity. I find no credible evidence for any supernatural being. What do you guys think? Does science education make a difference or not?

I'm no scientist, but I believe it does. Since I was a little kid I was fascinated by the stars in the night sky. My dad bought us an awesome telescope and I had seen Saturn's rings with my own eyes when I was 10.

Plus my chemistry teachers were awesome and made me love chemistry even though I hated math, physics, anything of the sort. Electrons gave meaning to my life back then.

I believe that was scientific enough to influence my life

"Behind every great pirate, there is a great butt."-Guybrush Threepwood-

(03-02-2014 01:08 PM)matt1162 Wrote: I wonder what percentage of people on this forum have a degree in physical science or have professional training in the field. I can scan some user names and some of them are science based. I just scanned down the page and saw a user named "Bucky Ball". I assume they've had some chemistry classes. Myself, I have a B.S. in geology and am currently working on an M.S. in Environmental Science. I'm just curious of whether being trained in science makes one more likely to lack a belief in a deity. I find no credible evidence for any supernatural being. What do you guys think? Does science education make a difference or not?

You might want to create a "poll" for ease of gathering data.

“I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man’s reasoning powers are not above the monkey’s.”~Mark Twain
“Ocean: A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man - who has no gills.”~ Ambrose Bierce

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Not exactly but my BS is in mechanical engineering and I practiced it for over 35 years. I will relate that once I had a fairly long conversation with a co-worker (also an engineer) who was a young world, anti evolution christian. I found the conversation most strange.

I do know that statistically those with a college degree are generally less religious than others.

(1999) suggest that “Intelligence drives attitude formation. That is, when considering social, moral, and political situations, those with greater cognitive skill are able to form more individualistic and open-minded (i.e. antiauthoritarian) attitudes than those of lesser cognitive ability” (p. 987). It is possible, then, that individuals with higher intelligence may come into intellectual conflict with the arguments made by religious scripture and leaders, thus explaining our finding of a negative association between intelligence and religious belief.

"The estimates suggest that, all else equal, one extra year of schooling leads to a 4 percentage-point increase in the likelihood that an individual reports having no religious affiliation at all; a reasonably large effect. "

"In a forthcoming paper for the journal Intelligence, Richard Lynn, emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Ulster, will argue that there is a strong correlation between high IQ and lack of religious belief and that average intelligence predicts atheism rates across 137 countries."

“I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man’s reasoning powers are not above the monkey’s.”~Mark Twain
“Ocean: A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man - who has no gills.”~ Ambrose Bierce

Personally, I am not a scientist, nor am I an atheist. I am a lawyer with a philosophy undergrad and consider myself a deist.

As a third party observer, my impression is that those who are drawn to science (or philosophy and law for that matter) are generally curious people who are probably more likely to rebel against the idea of having 'blind faith' in anything (I know that was always my biggest problem with religion). Accordingly, it makes sense to me that a lot of those in science would likely reject modern religions. I don't know if that makes them more likely to be an atheist or a deist, but I do think it likely makes them less likely to be a member of a structured religion.

I suppose there are more non believing scientists than there are believing. My chem I, II, and western philosophy teacher in high school was a Christian. I consider him to be a very smart man. I don't think intelligence or field of study is always the breaking point for religious beliefs. Francis Collins was director of the human genome project but also considers himself a strong Christian. So for him, even though he believes in evolution, he doesn't mind that the bible talks about an Adam and Eve as the first two humans. Or that the god of the bible sent a flood to kill off everyone, save for one family, just a mere 4,000 years ago.
I read on wiki* that Collins was troubled by the death of patients and thus he began religion shopping and settled on Christianity. For other people that same scenario leads them to abandon faith.

Didn't mean to pick on poor Collins, but I'm short on time. Anyway, I think there are multiple factors at play when it comes to joining or leaving religions/beliefs.

For your research purposes: I am an atheist, I am not a scientist (yet).

I'm assuming not. Another odd correlation I've heard about is the number of people who are engineers and that are also creationists. I don't know if that's limited to America or not. Also, I don't have a source.